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From Our Own Correspondent: A Spiral of Violence

15/05/2021

A Spiral of Violence

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, A Spiral of Violence

Conflict in Gaza and Israel; and stories from Brazil, Spain, Mexico and Italy.

Conflict in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel; strongman strategy in Turkey and Brazil; migrant routes to the Canary Islands; Mexican marine life in peril and Roman marbles restored

As missiles have rained down on Gaza and on Israel, violence at street level has also been at its worst for years. There have been clashes between Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel within Israel’s own borders. There have been confrontations between security forces and Palestinians in the West Bank. On a far greater scale, Gaza has been under heavy rocket fire as the Israeli Defence Forces struck back against what they identify as control centres for Hamas. Jeremy Bowen weighs up the damage.

In Brazil, Congress is conducting an inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic. But the president still has keen backers, who admire his energy and instinct for confrontation. Mark Lowen is just back from Brazil and reflects on Jair Bolsonaro's playbook - and its echoes of another leader whose tactics he knows well.

The number of boats carrying migrants keen to reach the shores of Europe is on the rise again. Enforcement is stricter across the Mediterranean, so other routes are getting busier. But the journey via the Atlantic and Spain’s Canary Islands can be lethal. Bruno Boelpaep reports on a tragedy at sea and a moving reunion.

Mexico’s Sea of Cortez is home to the most critically endangered sea mammal on earth: a small porpoise called the vaquita. There are fewer than a dozen left and they risk geting tangled in the nets cast out for fish. Those fish, in turn, are also under threat – even though they’re legally protected. Linda Pressly saw the pressures at work in the town of San Felipe.

And a historic collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture is back on public view for the first time in decades. The new display of the Torlonia marbles delighted David Willey, who has lived in Rome for nearly fifty years. He remembers them looking rather different.

Producer: Polly Hope

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